Swimming: Seaside rebuilds, re-fills the pool

Kendy Lin is in the senior year of a very successful high school swimming career at Seaside.

While Seaside will see the return of a couple of state-qualifying girls swimmers, the Gulls will have to replace some high-powered boys, including their entire 200-yard freestyle relay team.

Will Garvin, James Kennedy, Luke Liljenwall and Brad Rzewnicki played a big role in helping Seaside to a second-place team finish at districts last year. But the Fab Four has graduated, forcing a quick rebuilding job for head coach Shane Spell.

And rebuild they did.

From a total of 18 swimmers last year, to 34 this year.

While the Gulls have re-stocked the pool, they will have to wait before they can use it, as a remodeling project has closed Sunset Pool temporarily. As a result, the entire team has to hop on a bus four times per week and travel to either Nehalem or the Astoria Aquatic Center for practices.

In the meantime, Seaside has “lots of young, new swimmers who have been working hard and having a great attitude about hopping on that bus each day,” Spell said. “I’m pretty confident we’ll have some big surprises before the season is over.”

The first month of the season will be all road meets for the Gulls, “and then every Thursday in January we’ll be at home,” Spell said. “We’re looking forward to practicing in our home pool, once the Sunset Empire remodeling project is complete.”

Currently, the team has “more bus time than water time, but we’re appreciative of everyone who has made it possible for us to get that practice time,” said Spell, referring to the Astoria Aquatic Center, and Nehalem’s North County Recreation District.

Key returners for the Gulls this season include state qualifier Kendy Lin in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle, while Isaiah Collins returns for the boys, after swimming the lead leg for the state qualifying 200-yard medley relay team.